(Trinidad Guardian) Director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky is proposing tough measures to boot out the rogue element from the service with no hope of their returning. These measures, she suggested, would include CCTV cameras in charge rooms to monitor police interaction with the public and a “strike-action” policy, including officers being stripped of their pensions and other financial benefits.
Lucky outlined the tough measures for consideration by the authorities during an education and sensitisation meeting held at San Francique, Penal, on Tuesday night. The meeting was aimed at giving civilians an oversight of the law as it relates to the PCA. She said the PCA was not sleeping.
“When police officers have been found to conduct a wrong, serious police misconduct, a criminal offence or involved in police corruption, there should be a strike-action policy.” For minor breaches, Lucky said, “It is three strikes and you are out of the service, never to be rehired again.
“For very serious offences, such as police corruption, you don’t get, as the young people say, a bligh. You have been found in corruption, you are out. “You have killed somebody, in what would be unlawful circumstances, or you have been part of a conspiracy for criminal wrongdoing—you are out.”
Lucky, a former state prosecutor and judge, said the PCA had received a total of 517 complaints against police officers from October 1, 2011, to September 2012. Of the 517, she said, 338 fell into the category of serious police misconduct, criminal offence committed by a police officer or allegations of police corruption.
She also added that 54 of that 338, were matters that were first brought to the PCA’s attention by the media, both print and electronic. “That means we have a very alert media, a very alive media and a media that continues to champion the causes of the law-abiding citizens, and that works for our democracy in T&T,” Lucky said.
Referring to cases in which judges have condemned the behaviour of police who caused the State to pay significant costs to their victims, Lucky said after discussions with Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, matters determined by the court against police officers were now being placed on their records.
She said this was a recommendation of Appeal Court Judge Justice Wendell Kangaloo back in 2006, when the Appeal Court slammed PC Marlon Stoute-Khan, describing him as a disappointment to the service and the country.
Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) official Alfie Subiah, now deceased, had brought action against Stoute-Khan (no longer in the service) after he was arrested and dragged along the streets of Port- of-Spain to the Belmont Police Station from the PTSC and was charged because he told Stoute-Khan he could not ride the bus for free.
Lucky also called on the audience to say a prayer for Kangaloo, who is recovering from a serious car accident in May. Lucky said bad police could no longer get away with a rap on the knuckles when they commit wrong.
“A powerful message has to be sent. We are living in a very highly-charged society, a society that feels there is a lot of wrongdoing taking place and nothing is happening. The courts made the point, and we all agree, the only way people learn is if there is a consequence.” She suggested that people record wrongdoing not only by police but civilians as well.
Referring to the video of a man being planassed while buying doubles, she said, “It is easy for everybody to record the action of everybody else. It goes on Facebook, Twitter and next thing you see yourself starring in the news, not in a positive way. That in itself should act as a deterrent.”
By the same token, she suggested, CCTV cameras should be installed in charge rooms. “If police officers know, and the public knows, when they walk into a charge room their action and transaction and behaviour is being recorded and monitored, not only in the station, but in central command, they will act differently.”
